Is Apple Serious About Open Source?

Apple is working to improve relationships with the free software community, but developers won't settle for lip service. (Linux-Watch)

When Apple announced that it was moving Mac OS X to the Intel platform, one thing that didnt get much attention was that Apple would not be open-sourcing the Intel Darwin kernel.
Now, Apple has reversed its course and has quietly announced that it will open-source the kernel after all.
In a note to the Darwin developers list, Apples open-source project manager, Ernest Prabhakar, wrote, "As of today [Aug. 7], we are posting buildable kernel sources for Intel-based Macs alongside the usual PowerPC (and other Intel) sources, starting with Mac OS X 10.4.7."

These new moves come, however, only after many open-source developers have grown disgusted with Apples open-source attitude.
In June, for example, Apple officials told Tom Yeager, a columnist who follows Darwin, that only a "fraction of a fraction" of Mac users were interested in working with or recompiling Darwin source code.
Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is editor at large for Ziff Davis Enterprise. Prior to becoming a technology journalist, Vaughan-Nichols worked at NASA and the Department of Defense on numerous major technological projects. Since then, he's focused on covering the technology and business issues that make a real difference to the people in the industry.